It seems to me that readers sometimes make the genesis of a poem more mysterious than it is (by that I perhaps mean, think of it as something outside their own experience).

It is always pleasant to learn that someone takes an interest in a work which one enjoyed writing.

It seems to me that readers sometimes make the genesis of a poem more mysterious than it is (by that I perhaps mean, think of it as something outside their own experience).

I do not usually revise much, though I often cut, particularly the end or toward the end of a poem.

However, if a poem can be reduced to a prose sentence, there can't be much to it.

Well, if this is poetry, I'm certainly never going to write any myself.

In the past I have declined to comment on my own work: because, it seems to me, a poem is what it is; because a poem is itself a definition, and to try to redefine it is to be apt to falsify it; and because the author is the person least able to consider his work objectively.

The aim of the poet, or other artist, is first to make something; and it's impossible to make something out of words and not communicate.

However, intention needn't enter in, and if a reader sees things in a religious way, and the work is dogmatically acceptable, then I don't see why it should not be interpreted in that way, as well as in others.

One tends to write beyond what's needed.

To change your phrase somewhat, I know that I like an art where disparate elements form an entity.

I've said I'll stand for a full second term, but I think after that it will be time for new leadership. Terms are like Shredded Wheat - two are wonderful but three might just be too many.

Vengeance has no foresight.

I think that the entertainment industry itself has a history of chasing success. Any time a hit product comes out, all the other companies start chasing after that success and trying to recreate it by putting out similar products.

I have to grow with my audience.

An easy way to get people to like you is to make them laugh.

The whole point of Superman, as originally created, was to be the ally of those who had no other allies. It put that magnitude of power, the most powerful guy in the world, in the service of those who had no hope, no chance.

If it wasn't for my dad, I would never have known about pentathlon, because it's not popular at all in Australia.

Just because a meeting is held in closed session doesnt render it confidential. You can hold a meeting in closed session but you cant make people not talk.

Putting together philosophy and children would have been difficult for most of history. But very fortunately for me, when I started graduate school there was a real scientific revolution taking place in developmental psychology.

I know I'm not known as method. By nature I'm not a brooder. What I continue to use is a mixture of the English school, which is traditionally outside-in, and the more American way of working from the inside out.

I support strong sanctions and other penalties against those who aid violent extremists, brutalize their own people and have time and time again rejected calls to behave as responsible nations.

Children are the most desirable opponents at scrabble as they are both easy to beat and fun to cheat.

My parents just neglected me, I wasn't abused or anything.

I think, after about a week in, I started to get really down. I would feel better when I would eat.

Gadhafi's vicious regime has left Libya far worse than he found it on the day of his coup in 1969.

My mind is like a gyre, and odd juxtapositions happen.

The rapid growth in many of our suburbs has spawned a booming construction industry eager to hire low wage immigrants who gladly fill these jobs, many of them happy to be paid in cash, free of federal and state taxes.

I have an idea I want to test, for combining old peoples' homes and orphanages. Old people are lonely without children, children are lonely without parents. Why not bring them together?

Cows' milk protein may be the single most significant chemical carcinogen to which humans are exposed.

Why trip off some random person in Idaho that doesn't feel my vibe? Like, no thank you. Stay in your life; I'll stay in mine.

All men are equal before fish.

I receive about 10,000 letters a year from readers, and in the first year after a book is published, perhaps 5,000 letters will deal specifically with that piece of work.

I like to read Bengali novels and short stories. I am not that fond of reading English books, as I don't have a connect with it.

When you've toured for about 10 years like me, you end up feeling like you're always waiting for somebody or something. The whole day is a drag.